I emailed Astra in Luxembourg who run the Astra 2D satellite that the BBC and ITV use.  Lots of people have recently been having problems with mainly ITV but also some BBC regions.  I enquired if they had reduced power on the satellite. Today I received the following response:

Thank you for contacting ASTRA.

There has been no change to the ASTRA 2D transmissions. Possible cause could be an incremental level of adjacent satellite interference, because of additional transponders being operated at adjacent orbital positions. Repointing the concerned antenna's could be a solution.

Kind regards,

The ASTRA Team

So, no definitive reason or solution.  The only solution I know works (for people with dishes of 1m or less) is to upgrade to a 1.2m dish.  This seems to cure all problems.

Nigel

We have a 1.2 m dish, but ITV still breaks up at night.

wrote on Apr 21^st, 2011 at 10:01am:

We have a 1.2 m dish, but ITV still breaks up at night.

same here  :(

I have tried a 1.7m blonde dish, a curry dish, an oven proof dish and even dish water, but I still cant get ITV. Do I need a tellly as well?

"There has been no change to the ASTRA 2D transmissions. Possible cause could be an incremental level of adjacent satellite interference, because of additional transponders being operated at adjacent orbital positions. Repointing the concerned antenna's could be a solution."

I'm not sure that this reply is credible.  I'm no expert but I thought that the only adjacent satellite was Eurobird 1 at 28.5 ?  If Astra mean that there are recently increased levels on that (or on transponders on the Astra cluster) then a) they should know about it and b) dish pointing is so critical for Astra 2D that I would have thought that realignment away from Eurobird would not be possible without losing Astra. ?  Furthermore, would increasing dish size not amplify the problem of interference.  Please comment Nigel.

Been here 11 year 1.3 mtr dish used to suffice. However these days minimum 2.3 mtrs is needed for perfect reception in Vinaros area. Novatel in Benicarlo are experts in the field.

HI. We've been on a 80cm dish with an old Sky digibox here in Gandesa for 8 1/2 years, we get breakup during very bad weather but 90% of the time get all channels with no problems.
Terry.

As far as I'm aware there are Astra 2A, 2B and 2D + Eurobird 1. There is certainly a difference in position between them all.  The latest meter I use allows aligning more accurately on the individual satellite and 2D is definitely a bit away from the other Astra satellites in the cluster.  Signal levels on 2D vary about 2.5dB between the vertical and horizontal polarization, on a 1.25m dish I generally get around 11dB to 12dB from 2D, 2A and 2B are much stronger around 16dB, Eurobird around 11.5dB. Depends a bit on location/weather.

If you have a 1.2m dish and are suffering breakup then it sounds like;
- it is out of alignment
- the LNB is not set up properly or is noisy
- the receiver is losing sensitivity (going deaf)

I'm suprised there is such a vast difference between here and Vinaros though.  I'm due to align a dish in Freginals next week so I'll make a note of the values.

Nigel

For what it's worth, have found through experience that any form of connexion between lnb and digibox affects performance.  One long unbroken cable is best.

Plus a good LNB and good quality cable.

I must try re pointing the Antenna on our dish but so far I am having difficulty finding the joins in the brickwork!!

You silly man.  What Nigel should have said was that you need to re-align your bricks.